The present invention is directed toward work pants and more particularly, toward shorts with built-in knee pads.
Knee pads are frequently worn by people whose occupations require them to kneel for long periods of time and/or on rough surfaces. For example, construction workers, repairmen, gardeners, carpenters, and maintenance workers are quite often kneeling for long periods of time. This causes strain and stress on the person's joints. In order to alleviate this added stress to a person, knee pads are worn. Typically, knee pads are strapped on the person's legs and are very tightly strapped on in order to hold the pads in place as the person moves about. This can become extremely uncomfortable and after a period of time, the straps will need to be readjusted. Also, the straps and pads may be somewhat cumbersome to wear, remove, and transport.
Many solutions have been proposed in order to overcome the problems described above. For example, U.S. Design Pat. No. D395,939 to DeFino discloses a pair of gardening pants that appear to be shorts with knee pads built into them. However, these knee pads do not appear to be stable. That is, the knee pads are built into the pants and are free to move about. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,611,081 to Torres discloses work pants with knee pads built into the knee area of the pants.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,561,123 to Hull discloses knee pads that are removably attached to the knees of work pants where the pads are attached to the pants via hook and loop fasteners. These knee pads, however, may inadvertently be released from the pants as the worker moves about on his or her knees.
Therefore, a need exists for work pants that include knee pads that are attached to the pants and secured to a worker yet allow for mobility and are not overly constricting.